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Gus G of FIREWIND Interview for "Burning Earth" 10/26/03
FIREWIND Interview with Gus G. by Wayne at Quintessence. Quintessence: I find it pretty amazing nowadays and in the 90's of how musicians get along being from different countries; good examples are Empire, Silent Force and Condition Red for starters. Maybe all these war-monging countries could use bands like you for a good example to just get along? Gus G: That would be very nice actually. Music is the universal language that makes people come together!! I doesn't matter where you are from.......I play with 3 bands and all of them have international line-ups. Quintessence: "Between Heaven and Earth" was a killer album, but after listening to "Burning Earth", you guys really went balls-out musically. You have new members now compared to the debut, don't you? Gus G: Thanx, man. Yes, we got a brand new rhythm section. It's Petros Christo on bass, who hails from Greece and Norwegian drummer, Stian Kristoffersen. After we released our debut, I saw that some of the people in the band couldn't go on tour, because of personal reasons. So, this is why I set out to find new bandmates. However, there's no bad blood between me and Konstantine and Brian Harris. We split in good terms and we are still good friends. In regards to the new album, I too believe that we created a totally in-your-face album with strong and very heavy riffs and strong songs. Quintessence: Your background as a guitarist with training and schooling, etc. What sort of equipment do you abuse? Gus G: I've been playing guitar since 1990. I was 10 years old then. I went to some local music school in Thessaloniki, Greece for about 4 years. When I was 16 I got a scholarship to attend Berklee college, which I did...........but only for 2 weeks!!! I decided to concentrate on building my own band and play heavy metal music. I guess the rest is known, pretty much. My equipment: I use Washburn CP 2003 guitars, Randall and Engl amps and DR strings. Quintessence: Explain the combination of Eroc and Nordstrom as far as getting this CD to sound almost perfect. Fredrik once again did the mixing and Eroc did the mastering in Germany. I've worked with Eroc before on the Mystic Prophecy albums, and I was very pleased from his mastering jobs, so I thought it was a good idea to have him master the Firewind album as well. In regards to Fredrik's mixing, you always know what you get and that's the highest quality sound for heavy metal today! Quintessence: What will the touring be like for the rest of 2003? Anything else in store for the rest of the year? Firewind will start touring from early 2004, as the album is released at the end of this year. We will tour in Japan in January with Rob Rock and we're planning on a European tour around April. We will announce the European dates later on. This month Dream Evil is also releasing a mini CD and Mystic Prophecy's first album will be re-released through Nuclear Blast. And of course the main release of mine, is the new FIREWIND album. Quintessence: If you had the opportunity to pick 5 legendary bands (active or defunct) to do your own festival with, who'd you pick and why? Well, I would pick some of my favourite bands of course and some of the greatest bands in music history, so don't freak out with my list: :-) 1. Pink Floyd 2. Queen 3. Beatles 4. Scorpions 5. Led Zeppelin But of course, who could come up with all the money of the world to have these bands on the bill.....??? But it was a nice moment for me to dream of such a festival hehe!!! Thanx for the question! Quintessence: Final words, websites and any other links of interest Thank you very much for ur support, I hope everyone of u checks out the new FIREWIND album "Burning Earth" and I hope we see u all on tour soon! Find more info about FIREWIND @: www.firewind.gr www.betweenheavenandhell.com Sincerely, Gus G.!! Category:Interview Category:Gus G